On an Epidemic of Dengue Fever in Fiji in 1885

In May of the year 1885 a contagious disease, hitherto unknown in Fiji, made its appearance among the European population of the colony, continued active for some ten months, and then disappeared. Having once obtained a footing, so to speak, it attacked eventually all the white settlers, men, women, and children, and spread, though somewhat slowly, to the coloured races in the islands, viz., Fijians, Indians, and Melanesians. The two latter races are introduced, under Government supervision, for the purpose of working on the sugar, tea, coffee, and other plantations of the colony, and it is a curious fact that, while those Fijians and Indians who took the disease suffered severely, those attacked among the Melanesians were affected but slightly. To the statement that dengue was hitherto unknown in Fiji, I ought, perhaps, to add so far as can be ascertained, for the opinion rests solely 011 the absence of any native traditions concerning it. Those who know these people, who have lived among them, speaking their language, and who, from their long acquaintance with their legends, manners, and customs, have a right to speak, find it difficult to believe that if dengue had ever before existed in these islands no memory of it should remain, and it is significant that there is no native name for the disease. The old